In recent days my bike and I have got reacquainted. It’s not that we fell out, more we both didn’t have much time for each other. Whilst I was busy hopping around the country and across the Tasman my bike was busy becoming an avid collector of cobwebs and dust blown in all the way from Gundagai.

With the light evenings it has been perfect for a few short bike rides and on Friday night I took advantage of the fine weather and cycled to yet another part of Canberra Nature Park complete with all the usual trappings - gum trees, kangaroos and a panoramic look out. Mount Pleasant is a smaller mound just across the lake from where I live but seems a million miles away – red dirt tracks transporting you at once to the realms of Woop-Woop and beyond.

For some reason there were a lot of rabbits here. They’re not native but were a present from the Poms. So we give them rabbits to ruin their ecosystem and rabbit batsmen to bowl at. There were a couple of large roos spotted though, probably the biggest I have seen up close in the wild.

I also am pretty sure I had my first known encounter with a snake. As I reached the top of Mount Pleasant something dark, thin and wriggly slithered into a hole in the rocks. I didn’t linger to investigate further.

I reached the top of Mount Pleasant with the late evening sun casting beautiful light in every direction. Here are a few pictures I took whilst I was at the top.

And as the sun dipped below the hills I cycled back along Lake Burley Griffin, across the bridge, past deserted civil servant quarters and home.